Transport from Schneidemuehl, Schneidemühl (Grenzmark Posen-Westpreussen), Pomerania, Germany to Berlin, Berlin (Berlin), City of Berlin, Germany on 19/08/1940

Despite the agreement, on February 15, 1940, the Gauleiter of Pomerania, SA-Obergruppenführer Franz Schwede-Coburg — determined that the province he governed would be the first in the Reich to achieve the status of “judenfrei” (free of Jews) — issued a new deportation order of the Pomeranian Jews. The deportees were to be sent in a week's time from Schneidemühl (Piła) to the Lublin area in the General Government. Local Gestapo authorities coordinated their actions with local Nazi Party officials and the orders of the city's mayor, Friedrich Rogausch. On February 21, 1940, the Gestapo of the Province of Pomerania carried out a raid in haste: they eliminated any official preparations or questionnaires that listed the belongings of prospective deportees to be confiscated prior to their departure. Pomeranian Jews living within a radius of about 100 km from Schneidemühl — in over a dozen Jewish communities in the districts of Köslin (Koszalin), Stettin (Szczecin) and Grenzmark-Posen Westpreussen (Marchia Graniczna Poznańsko-Zachodniopruska), including the area formerly belonging to Brandenburg (Brandenburgia) — were arrested. Within one single day, 544 Jews were deported by trucks and buses to places of detention in Schneidemühl, the capital city of the Grenzmark-Posen Westpreussen district....